Breastfeeding was supposed to be easy, but it was more
difficult than giving birth. In the past, we were surrounded by extended
families full of women who had breastfed. Now, most of us go it nearly
alone. Knowledge that was passed down from generation to generation has
been replaced by experts. Thank goodness for groups like Le Leche League who try to preserve the support breastfeeding women used to get in their extended families.
I now understand why so many women give up breastfeeding. I pushed along, because I knew that breastfeeding my little one breastmilk was the best thing I could do for her to ensure that she has a healthy life. We are no longer surrounded by breastfeeding women who can help us. And, the support that we do have can interfere with our intuition by echoing back to us conventional thought processes around how to raise our babies, such as trying to tell us that they are eating too much or to put them on a schedule. Most of us end up going back to work much sooner than is best for baby, because the U.S. does not have adequate maternity laws. Breastfeeding in public is seen as taboo. We compete with conventional doctors who often tell us that we have a low supply and that we need to supplement with formula, because the baby's weight doesn't match a chart. It's a lot to compete with.
Our Bradley instructor told us to connect with breastfeeding resources before we gave birth, because that would make it more likely that we'd reach out for help when we needed it. Bradley encourages pregnant women to attend Le Leche League meetings prior to giving birth. I attended two meetings, which was a blessing, because I knew exactly who to contact when I had a day-old newborn who wouldn't eat. She gave me great advice, connected to me some online resources, and followed up via phone to make sure that I could feed my baby. I also found support on Babycenter.com's Breastfeeding Support and Pumping Moms forums. Women are posting and responding to questions during all hours of the day. Additionally, when I would google my questions to find pages that could shed some light on whatever baby topic I wanted to know about. I cannot imagine going through this without the internet like previous generations did.
I thought breastfeeding would be easy, because babies have instincts. They come out wanting to find the breast, and they can move and root to do so. But, Lily was suctioned quite a bit, due to a lot of meconium in the womb, and we were separated for a long time, because I lost a lot of blood during labor and delivery. That made the first days of breastfeeding difficult for us both. She would root for the nipple, but cry when she got there. I had to hand express colostrum into a spoon to feed her. At the end of day 3, she was starving, because my colostrum ran out, but my milk hadn't come in. I didn't realize we weren't getting anything, and the continued breastfeeding destroyed my nipples, which took four weeks to heal. We had latch issues and pumping issues as well.
Here are some major lessons that I learned:
I now understand why so many women give up breastfeeding. I pushed along, because I knew that breastfeeding my little one breastmilk was the best thing I could do for her to ensure that she has a healthy life. We are no longer surrounded by breastfeeding women who can help us. And, the support that we do have can interfere with our intuition by echoing back to us conventional thought processes around how to raise our babies, such as trying to tell us that they are eating too much or to put them on a schedule. Most of us end up going back to work much sooner than is best for baby, because the U.S. does not have adequate maternity laws. Breastfeeding in public is seen as taboo. We compete with conventional doctors who often tell us that we have a low supply and that we need to supplement with formula, because the baby's weight doesn't match a chart. It's a lot to compete with.
Our Bradley instructor told us to connect with breastfeeding resources before we gave birth, because that would make it more likely that we'd reach out for help when we needed it. Bradley encourages pregnant women to attend Le Leche League meetings prior to giving birth. I attended two meetings, which was a blessing, because I knew exactly who to contact when I had a day-old newborn who wouldn't eat. She gave me great advice, connected to me some online resources, and followed up via phone to make sure that I could feed my baby. I also found support on Babycenter.com's Breastfeeding Support and Pumping Moms forums. Women are posting and responding to questions during all hours of the day. Additionally, when I would google my questions to find pages that could shed some light on whatever baby topic I wanted to know about. I cannot imagine going through this without the internet like previous generations did.
I thought breastfeeding would be easy, because babies have instincts. They come out wanting to find the breast, and they can move and root to do so. But, Lily was suctioned quite a bit, due to a lot of meconium in the womb, and we were separated for a long time, because I lost a lot of blood during labor and delivery. That made the first days of breastfeeding difficult for us both. She would root for the nipple, but cry when she got there. I had to hand express colostrum into a spoon to feed her. At the end of day 3, she was starving, because my colostrum ran out, but my milk hadn't come in. I didn't realize we weren't getting anything, and the continued breastfeeding destroyed my nipples, which took four weeks to heal. We had latch issues and pumping issues as well.
Here are some major lessons that I learned:
- Birth trauma can make it difficult for baby to breastfeed. Embracing birth as a natural part of life, I didn't think that we were going to have any birth trauma.
- Have people to call just in case. I was attending Le Leche League meetings prior to giving birth, because I have trouble asking for help. It was a life saver.
- Pump flanges come in more than one size! OMG! Standard is a medium. You could need a small, large, extra large, or bigger! And the size corresponds with your nipple/breast, not with your bra size. So, you just have to try a few out and see what works for you by extracting the most milk.
- Big-breasted women have challenges breastfeeding. I watched some videos on Youtube made by some large-breasted women who seemingly also had issues. I don't think I have big boobs, but my mom begs to differ.
- Babies also need to learn how to breastfeed just like mom does. I noticed that as we worked at it more and more, baby girl learned how to breastfeed better. For example, folks kept saying that her lips should flare out a little with a good latch. No matter how I tried to help her at first she couldn't flare her lips.
